So are these good deals or not? Seems like the first sample pack I got, while the coffee was good, included several coffees that weren't being listed for sale on the site. Are they using the samplers to dump sub par beans or are the beans representative of the quality of the listed beans?

If you browse through Sweet Maria's catalog of green beans you will find ...there's a lot.

Once you get into roasting you will wonder which beans you should be getting. How to know what you like? Well,by buying samplers. I have roasted through hundreds of pounds and I still buy samplers.

I usually buy 2 lb samplers. Because of my usage and I roast 10 oz at a time and can get 3 roasts out of (roughly) 2 lbs.

There is no evidence that Sweet Maria's uses 'samplers' to dispose of 'ends of bags'. Actually, the opposite is true. My biggest problem is that when I find a sampler that appeals to me and try to place (say) a 10 lb order they have already sold it out.

You are definitely correct - I am wondering which beans to buy out of a very large list.

That is why I tried the first (8#) sampler, and was thinking of ordering another. Just wondered what the general feeling was on the quality of the sampler beans was relative to the long list of available coffees.

Didn't want to keep buying samplers if the consensus of experienced roasters was that the samplers were generally of lesser quality.

I've been sorta hit and miss with the samplers... One thing I've noticed is that it's hard to get everything dialed in with a one pound sample size. By the time I dial in a good roast, and I get the grinder all dialed in for the bean I roasted, the 1# is gone.

It's funny because I wasn't really impressed with their Monkey blend which is a regular blend for them, but some of the ones with names I'll never remember were pretty good.

I got my 8# sample for free when I bought a Behmor so I can't complain. However once that's all gone, I'll likely go back to my local source who has a Malabar I really love.

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